Codex Draconis: Blue Satraps of the Deserts (PFRPG) PDF

Welcome to the second Codex Draconis, the line of products that gives you what you need to drop dragons into your games with a minimum of effort and a maximum of options. Here in the second volume of our line, we present options and alternatives for a dozen blue dragons, covering every age category of the azure lords of the steppes and deserts. Each age category also has three pregenerated treasure hoards, some alternative monster builds, and suggestions on how to build even deadlier dragon encounters.

Dragons are among the most iconic, and most popular, of all fantasy roleplaying game foes. Once the domain exclusively of higher-level adventures, dragons now have rules for every stage of life. This means that wet-behind-the-ears PCs can face dragons early in their careers (though likely they will be facing dragons the size of housecats). To ensure a dragon is always just the right threat for PCs of any level, dragons are given twelve stages of life that, when combined with the many different types of dragons, creates a range of CRs from 5 to 21. The problem with that, of course, is that it requires a lot of stat blocks, and those take up room. To save space, instead of presenting a full write-up of every dragon at every age category, the game’s creators present a set of rules outlining how to write up dragons, and then give a few examples of each type. As a result, although you can find a dragon of the right CR for an encounter, it takes a considerable amount of work to get that dragon ready for the game.

To help with that problem, the fine folks at d20pfsrd.com took on the job of creating full stat blocks for every true dragon of every type, and when we expressed an interest in using those as the starting point for our Codex Draconis line, they were kind enough to give us their blessing. In addition to their dragon write-ups, Codex Draconis: Blue Satraps of the Deserts presents additional material to expand the ways you can use these dragons and allows you to drop them into your campaign.

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A collection of stat blocks for dragons

This product is 26 pages long. It starts with a cover and intro. (2 pages)

The Dragons ( 23 pages)
There is full stat blocks for 12 dragons in this book at CR 5, 7, 9, 10, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21. The final CR 21 has a second stat block of a variant build as well. Each CR listing has 3 sample hoards for fast, medium and slow progression. A section on suggested tactics the dragon could use to make them more dangerous and final a section on alternative builds. Such as swapping out feats or what have you. These finally sections are very well done, with some good advice for the most part, with some interesting optional builds. The hoards where pretty simple but that’s understandable considering they are doing 3 for each dragon. There is also a intelligent magic axe of throwing in the book with a interesting history.

It ends with a OGL and credits. (1 pages)

Closing thoughts. I will be totally honest, this is mostly a book of stat blocks and I am not a huge number cruncher. I went over the stat blocks and nothing stood out to me as obviously wrong. I do fully admit I could have missed errors in the stat blocks, since I am not great at that. I am more of the type that if it looks right I just go with it type GM and don't worry if the stat blocks are perfect. The art is mostly color and ranges from meh to pretty good. The editing and layout was good. So whats my rating? Well if you are looking for complete stat blocks, advice, tactics for blue dragons look no further than here. If that appeals to you then I highly recommend this product. I am going to settle on a 4 star though. It gives exactly as promised and does it well, but I think it could have been better too. With some more advice and build idea's.